The freeholders in May 2011 rejected a proposal from Middlesex County-based AristaCare Health Services to buy or lease the facility. The nursing home went on to lose roughly $2.2 million last year and is on track to lose about $3.5 million this year. Freeholder Director Everett Chamberlain said in October that a past proposal to privatize some of the services at Warren Haven resulted in one very low bid.

Freeholder Jason Sarnoski said Thursday that employee costs are "uncontrollable."

"Because quite frankly salaries have only gone up in the last 10 or 12 years (at) 2 percent a year," Sarnoski said. "But you look at pension costs and medical costs, medical costs have gone up 200 percent."

He said the county went from not even paying pension costs in 2005 to now paying more than $800,000 a year. Sarnoski added that most of the other county-owned nursing homes in New Jersey have already privatized some, if not all, of these services.

Reimbursement rates for Medicare and Medicaid have gone down and continue to drop, he said, and next year under the Affordable Care Act it will continue to cut into revenue at Warren Haven.

"And in order to manage those costs and provide the best possible care for our seniors, we're going to have to find ways to cut costs," Sarnoski said.

Freeholder Rick Gardner said public care facilities are put at a disadvantage against private companies because "private care obviously had the opportunity to basically pick and choose their clientele."

"And we don't, because it's always been the intention to take care of our own no matter what," he said.

Sarnoski said services will still be provided at the facility no matter if it's private or not.

"And they're going to need people to work there to do that," he said. "And they're probably going to hire most of the people back from that pool of employees, but the thing is the employees will not be under the county and we will not be incurring those costs that we're incurring now."

Sarnoski said during the meeting that freeholders want to see what's available, and that nothing is imminent.